Though Love Songs (aka Les Chansons d'Amour) is not a film operetta per se, director Christophe Honoré and composer/lyricist/vocalist Alex Beaupain use that film to pay homage to the French movie musical as conceived by Jacques Demy in his classic Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1967). The Honoré film concerns a series of hopelessly romantic Parisian characters who are unable to convey their feelings to one another in everyday situations, and who thus use musical numbers as outlets -- as vehicles
of emotional expression. Beaupain composed the score; a number of the songs that are included appeared on one of his solo albums. The individual stories covered in the film tell age-worn tales as old as time: the loss of love, the discovery of new love, the impossibility of mutual love. The film stars Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni, Clotilde Hesme, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Brigitte Roüan, Jean-Marie Winling, and Yannick Renier. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Conceived by Honore as a tribute to a dead friend, the helmer is perhaps too close to his subject, never quite able to bring himself to linger on the grief that should be at pic's core.
This inexpressibly tender and lovely picture suggests that [Honoré's] developing into a major talent, one who can make the spirit of classic French movies come alive in a new world.
Yes, it's weird. But it's wild card weird, with that thrill of never knowing what's coming next or when these Parisians are going to get musical on us.
Whereas Umbrellas of Cherbourg has become timeless in its depiction of romance, Love Songs strikes a strongly contemporary note in its calm acceptance of the fluidity of desire and emotion.
Sweetly plays on stereotypes of the French as obsessed with romance, or at least movie musicals, so regardless of any consistency or logic, love and singing conquer all.
It's a story which Honoré describes as personal, so we must assume that there is some truth at least in the premise. But the decision to set the story to music undermines the emotional honesty that the piece might otherwise have had.
Sokaristiko ohi gia tin tolmi ton eikonon, i ton ideon toy, alla giati katebazei ti diastimiki apithanotita toy na brethei sokolatoyho gala ston Ari, kai soy ti serbirei me ayga kai mpeikon, les kai to pio anorthodokso pragma s' ayto, einai oti to stayrol
Love Songs finds the magic that the great screen musicals have -- the way a sad song can nonetheless leave an audience happy, or the way two voices blending seems to create something so much bigger.
While it never remotely aproaches the greats of "Les Parapluies de Cherbourgh", which it borrows heavily from, it is a charming little musical with a surprise twist at the end.
After the almost unbearable first part(the departure) it follows the story & its characters in a more convincing & engaging way but not enough to save the entire thing from the abyss
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